FPGA

Reprogrammable logic device

LAST UPDATED ON October 21st, 2014

Description

A Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) is a semiconductor device than can take on the personality of a customer’s design by programming it. Unlike a processor that executes a program, and FPGA configures itself to become an operating circuit that will then respond to inputs in the same way that a dedicated piece of hardware would behave.
Hardware Description Languages (HDL), such as Verilog and VHDL are used to program the devices.

A typical FPGA will contain a number of reprogrammable elements (often implemented as a lookup table), reprogrammable interconnect, memory blocks and programmable I/O. Later devices also contain processor cores and other hardened blocks that can be used without having to program them into the programmable fabric.

Also known as the Internet of Everything, or IoE, the Internet of Things is a global application where devices can connect to a host of other devices, each either providing data from sensors, or containing actuators that can control some function. Data can be consolidated and processed on mass in the Cloud.

An approach in which machines are trained to favor basic behaviors and outcomes rather than explicitly programmed to do certain tasks. That results in optimization of both hardware and software to achieve a predictable range of results.